


you and I were fire

by allyouneedissleep



Series: Winterhawk Bingo [6]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Deaf Clint Barton, Fireworks, First Kiss, Fluff, Fourth of July, Getting Together, Grumpy Clint Barton, M/M, Song: Fourth of July (Fall Out Boy)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29623527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyouneedissleep/pseuds/allyouneedissleep
Summary: Clint hadn’t beenavoidinghis neighbors exactly, he just well- he needed a break and staying indoors just sounded like a much better idea. If he was only leaving his apartment at odd hours in the hopes he didn’t have to see anyone, well that was neither here nor there.The problem was that his apartment building's annual Fourth of July party was coming up. And even though he was able to successfully skip out on the rooftop barbeques up until that point, he knew he wouldn’t be able to miss out on this one.Oh he was still going totry, he just wasn’t sure that it was going to work.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Series: Winterhawk Bingo [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891426
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37
Collections: Winterhawk Bingo Round Two





	you and I were fire

**Author's Note:**

> For my Winterhawk Bingo Square: Neighbours AU. 
> 
> Was listening to Fourth of July by Fall Out Boy (where the title is from), and was like "yoooo, I should write a Fourth of July rooftop BBQ one-shot". And here we are.

Clint hadn’t been _avoiding_ his neighbors exactly, he just well- he needed a break and staying indoors just sounded like a much better idea. If he was only leaving his apartment at odd hours in the hopes he didn’t have to see anyone, well that was neither here nor there. 

The problem was that his apartment building's annual Fourth of July party was coming up. And even though he was able to successfully skip out on the rooftop barbeques up until that point, he knew he wouldn’t be able to miss out on this one. 

Oh he was still going to _try_ , he just wasn’t sure that it was going to work.

\--

Clint thought he was doing so well. In the week leading up to the party, no one had come to talk to him about it. He didn’t want to jinx it by patting himself on the back, but he figured he had earned at least a little celebration. 

Of course, right as he was thinking that a knock sounded at his door. 

Clint internally groaned. “Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? Can’t ya see, I don’t want to talk to anyone?” he grumbled to himself as he shuffled his feet slowly towards the door. Maybe if he walked slow enough, the person would fuck off before he could open the door.

No dice. 

When the door swung open, Simone was standing on the other side with both of her hands on her hips. “Clint Barton, you will stop avoiding me and every other person who lives in this building. You are not only the landlord, but you live here as well, and you will start acting as such! Starting with showing up to the Fourth of July party.”

Clint turned to walk into his apartment, not even bothering to see if Simone was following him. He wished she would get the hint and leave, but he would never actually force her out of there, so he figured he was stuck being lectured at least for a little bit. 

“Ugh, do I have to though?” Clint whined as he dropped heavily into a stool at his breakfast bar. When he looked up, Simone had closed the door and came to lean against the kitchen sink.

She gripped the sink behind her, “yes. Clint,” her voice softened, “the boys miss their uncle.”

“You did _not_ have to go there,” he buried his head in his hands. “You know I love your kids as if they were really my blood family, but I just- I just haven’t been up to seeing anyone.”

“Oh Clint,” she rushed over to bring his head into her chest for a hug. She began to run her fingers through his hair, “I know things have been rough for you lately, but isolating yourself isn’t going to help. Just come to the party for ten minutes, say hello to everyone, meet the new neighbor and leave.”

Clint squinted his eyes in confusion, “what new neighbor? I didn’t approve any leases or anything did I?”

She laughed a little, “no honey. He’s Steve’s old war buddy, or whatever, moved into his spare room.”

He slowly pulled his head away to look at her. “Can you really be ‘old war buddies’ if you’ve only been out of the war for like a year?”

She lightly slapped his shoulder on her way to the door, “so see you at the party tomorrow right?”

Clint attempted a weak smile, “if I must.”

\--

Even though he promised Simone he would show up to the party, he never had any intention of actually _enjoying_ himself. He would show up for a minimum of ten minutes and a maximum of an hour. It would be great, and then everyone could go back to leaving him alone. He had it all planned out in his head, and it was the perfect plan.

Of course that didn’t happen.

His plan fell apart in about two minutes flat.

He had been doing so well. He grumbled on his walk up the stairs, having decided to show up just late enough where everyone would be there, but he wouldn’t cause anyone to fear he wasn’t going to show his face. Clint even carried a store bought cake in his hand (it might have been a bit smushed, but he thought that just added character). No one was going to be able to tell him he didn’t at least make an _attempt_.

Everything immediately went to shit when he spotted the man with the dark hair and metal arm. He wasn’t conventionally attractive, what with his greasy hair and semi-permanent bitch face, but he was the most breathtaking man Clint had ever seen. 

Clint wasn’t into cliches, especially when it came to his love life, but he could have sworn that someone had set the fireworks off early. He felt like there were bright lights just on the peripheral of his vision, all pointing him towards this man that he didn’t know yet. 

He stumbled a little as he tried to make his way to the dessert table to leave his lackluster cake. “Pull it together Barton,” he whispered to himself as he placed the cake down, “no need to make a fool of yourself.” He slid his hands down his shirt to smooth out the visible wrinkles as he turned around to see if anyone had overheard him. 

Not seeing anyone approaching him yet, he decided to orbit around the beautiful man without actually inserting himself into his conversation. Clint wanted to make sure that the man got a good look at him before he attempted to introduce himself. 

If Clint casually rolled his sleeves up to mid forearm to showcase some of his best assets, well no one would know but him.

He plastered on a smile and made his rounds, hugging all of his tenants as he went. Clint was pleasantly surprised to realize just how much he had missed everyone, and before he knew it he was genuinely enjoying himself. 

It wasn’t until he was catching up on what everyone had been up to that he really realized just how disconnected he had allowed himself to become. Truthfully, he only felt a little bad about it because he could acknowledge that he had needed the break to work on himself. However, he could also acknowledge that he needed this party to spend time with everyone again. 

Clint was just pulling out of a hug with Steve, when the beautiful man came over to him. Clint would be lying if he said he had forgotten about him, but he had definitely been distracted from his goal of talking to the guy. “Hey Stevie, you gonna introduce us or-” the man trailed off. 

“Oh,” Steve straightened up, “I hadn’t realized you didn’t know each other yet. Bucky this is Clint, our landlord. Clint, this is Bucky, my best friend and roommate.”

Clint coughed weakly into his hand, “please don’t call me your landlord. Think of me as just another tenant in the building.” The absolute last thing he wanted was to create some sort of awkward power dynamic between himself and Bucky. He had never been interested in one of his neighbors before, but he didn’t want them to start on bad terms because of it. 

“Well,” Clint continued awkwardly, sticking a hand out for a shake. “I’m Clint, I live in 4H. I’ve been busy lately, but I’m generally around.” He flapped the air uselessly with his left arm, before he realized he probably looked stupid and immediately dropped it. 

“Nice to meet you,” Bucky shook his hand firmly. “I’ve heard a bit about you from various people around the building,” he swept his arm around without losing eye contact with Clint, “but it’s nice to finally put a face to the name.” Bucky whistled under his breath, “and what a face it is,” he said much quieter than his previous sentence. 

Clint wasn’t actually sure that he had heard him correctly. He used a finger to circle his ear, “I couldn’t quite make out that last sentence. My hearing isn’t the best,” he shrugged gently. He was absolutely intentionally putting Bucky on the spot, but the guy would never know that he was playing dirty on purpose. 

“O-oh,” Bucky stuttered, his face immediately turning red. “Um,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “it’s really not that important.”

Steve rolled his eyes, “he was calling you hot.”

“Stevie!” Bucky hit him across the chest, the slap making a loud ‘wap’ sound.

Frankly, Clint had forgotten that Steve was there. Still, he turned to him to thank him, “great. Thanks Steve. You can go now.”

Steve sputtered as he backed up, “okayy then.”

Clint grinned to himself as he watched Steve seamlessly blend back into the crowd. He slowly turned back to Bucky hoping to finally have a decent conversation with the guy. If he was really lucky he’d be able to get the guy alone. 

Apparently, Bucky had been on the same page because by the time Clint was looking in his direction again, he was being dragged off to the roof ledge in a spot where no one else had congregated. 

Over the next two hours, Clint quickly learned that time seemed to simultaneously speed up and slow down when he was in Bucky’s presence. Before he knew it, he had been at the party far longer than he had planned. On top of that though, he was actually going to make it to see the fireworks for the first time in ages. 

He had just turned to say as much to Bucky, “hey do ya think we’ll see the fireworks soon?”, when the fireworks started going off behind them. 

Bucky started laughing in response, and Clint swore that he looked so beautiful that he had to laugh too. Only right after Clint started laughing, Bucky abruptly stopped. 

“What?” Clint breathed, leaning closer.

“Nothing,” Bucky over enunciated so that Clint could read his lips, “just you look really beautiful right now”

“So do you.”

Before Clint could even think to lean in, Bucky had already beat him to it, literally taking his breath away with the best first kiss he’d ever experienced in his life. If part of that was because there were both figurative fireworks going off in his head, and literal fireworks going off behind his head… well that was a secret he would keep to himself for a while. 

It was the best party he’d ever been dragged to against his will. Of course, he would never admit that to Simone, lest she hold it over his head for the rest of their lives.


End file.
